George Lucas Claims Han Didn’t Shoot First In *Original* “New Hope”

Well, this has had my Facebook and Twitter feed abuzz for a hot minute. So now, George “Jar Jar” Lucas is now making the claim that, in the original “New Hope”, Han Solo did not shoot Greedo first. Now, this might seem trivial. Insignificant. But I implore you: once you tell a story like this, once it infects the populus like a virus, it becomes OURS, not YOURS. Therefore, you do not have the right to go back and change what you’ve created. It cheapens the original experience and flips the bird to your original fans.

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It's his story though, he's free to retroactively add or subtract as he wishes. I have not yet seen a single thing that made the films worse than they were originally, only people whining about their ownership of a thing not theirs.

I have to say, this is one of the reasons that I am glad I have the original on LaserDisc. There's no mistaking in that scene that:

Han knows he's in trouble - the cuts during his conversation with Greedo, showing him removing his blaster from its holster while gesturing with his free hand to draw attention says he's prepared to take action.

Three words: Point. Blank. Range. If someone wants to tell me Greedo could have missed at a distance of perhaps three feet (across the table), then that same someone probably believes in all manner of screwy stuff ... like a deity, maybe.

The fact is that Lucas has been "scraping the canvas" practically since the franchise started. I don't know whether he's insecure about it or can't let it go or what.

What I DO know is that he hasn't done anything major SINCE Star Wars (and sorry, no, producing Red Tails doesn't count), and I can't think of another piece of film that has been so relentlessly altered and revised as Star Wars has been.

So let's be clear: Han Shot First. Greedo's dead, George - get over it!

You know whats saddest for me with this story? Well more than one thing...First is the fact that Lucas who had talent, imagination, and ability has sqaundered much it (film making wise) on his obsession with a somewhat cheap, pretentious, boring story of StarWars. See THX1138, see American Graffitti, and then ...pooof...gone.

Second is that Lucas (like Spielberg taking guns out of ET) has completely diregarded his roots and connection to what was arguably the greatest moment in American film history. That being the 1970s. This little story shows his willingness or desire to conform with the overly sinsitive helicopter parent mentality of our era. The idea that HIS good guys must be so squeeky clean. This completely destroys the charcter of Han Solo who was the ONLY breath of fresh air in SW. Even as a 10 year old boy his character was the saving grace of the film that made me (briefly) a SW fan. Yes I saw the original release in 77..

And as an atheist I find the whole thing one large pile of theistic fantasy Crap!!..IM a Trekki! ;)

I saw the original release in 1977 as well ... and I saw it in 70 mm!!! Trust me when I say, you don't beat 70 with no stick, and I don't care HOW Georgie revised it.

As for the issue with Solo, if there's a problem with shooting first, why not have him shove the table into Greedo. Greedo's shot goes wide and Solo nails him anyway. Yeah, I know, requires a reshoot of the scene. Not my problem George - YOURS for not dealing with it in the first place.